Lee Westwood hopes an elusive Major win is less than a month away after maintaining his remarkably consistent run of form at St Andrews.
Westwood's second place in The 139th Open Championship means he has now finished third, third, second, 16th and second in the last five Majors, although he admitted he was never going to overhaul champion Louis Oosthuizen.
The World Number Three's attentions will now turn to next month's US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits after a final round 70 saw him finish seven shots behind runaway winner and stablemate Oosthuizen.
"Whether I won the tournament was in the hands of other people," the 37 year old said.
"Louis has obviously played great and thoroughly deserves to win so there's not even any real disappointment.
"If you get close and you lose, then there's disappointment, but I didn't even get within eight shots today.
"I played steadily. I played okay all week without really doing anything too special. I didn't make enough of the opportunities that my long game presented, really. I didn't putt well enough, my short game wasn't quite sharp enough.
"But all in all, delighted with the week. I keep putting myself into contention in these Major Championships and keep finishing in the top three. It's not really to be sniffed at and complained about.
"That's all I'm going to try and do, just try and keep going as I am, keep working out, trying to improve little bits and hopefully one of these chances will turn into a trophy.
"I don't know if it's around the corner, but hopefully it's about three weeks away. I can't do much more than I'm already doing.
I'm trying to improve all the time and I'm sticking myself in contention.
"I'm showing a lot of consistency but it's not quite been good enough. Sometimes I play well and someone just plays better."
